It's been a few years since I last visited BYOAC, but it feels great to be back. As I never was able to come up with the money for the upright cab I was planning to build (Token Taker, if anyone remembers), I felt like building an all-in-one control panel (to plug right into a tv and play) would scratch my arcade-project-itch for a while. So here's what I've got so far.

It is going to be black with light blue t-molding, will have no exposed screws or bolts, and will have a thin galvanized steel top (atop 3/4" mdf) with no artwork. The top will be painted with a heavy-duty high-gloss enamel paint, and the rest will be painted flat black. It will have two happ supers with seven light-blue pushbuttons per joystick, and will have 6 other pushbuttons (player 1 & 2, coin insert 1 & 2, pause, and esc). The computer I was planning to use for the upright will be dismantled and placed inside the cp, probably using MaLa as a frontend (though I have to see, as it did not exist last time I was here), and will be interfaced to the controls using a GP-Wiz Eco. I am trying to keep the cost low by making the whole thing relatively simple, and by using some things I already have.

One thing I haven't yet figured out is whether this thing will be too big for what little I have on it, so advice on this would be nice (thanks!). As of right now, the panel will be 30" X 14" (with the angles removing 1" to make 13"), and the box below the panel will be 6" tall in the back, and 5" tall in the front. In pictures:

Hole cutout measurements (Pro/Desktop would not allow me to make vertical measurements for some reason, so they are in text bubbles):

CP pieces cut and holes drilled:

CP top closeup:

Base as it should stand:

CP top set atop its base:

Galvanized steel sheet (26 ga.) over the CP top (cut about 1/4" larger on all sides so that the edges could be bent over the CP edges, but under the t-molding):The edges were hammered until they were straight and rested flat against the side of the cp. I did this because I was afraid that either I would be unable to bend the curled edges of the steel back down (from cutting with aviation snips) so that the steel would lay flat, or that I would be able to, but the sharp edge would eventually get caught on someone or something.

Closeup of the edge (the black line is sharpie, marking all edges to be routed):

I tried drilling the holes into the galvanized steel with a few different bits, and each one became dull before drilling a hole (even the TiO2 coated ones); I need to get some new bits. I also need to get the slot-cutting bit for the molding, and need to order parts. I will be out of town for a while, so there may be no more updates for a week or two. Enjoy!

What speed are you drilling at and what drilling method are you using? You shouldn't have any problems with drills blunting whilst drilling that material, even using el cheapo HSS bits let alone coated ones.

I tried drilling the holes at the highest speed my drill would allow after slower speeds weren't doing much. I suppose I could just be really patient and drill slowly...

Thanks for the replies guys.

EDIT: Thanks for the advice TOK, but I'm not planning on using plexi; the metal sheet is the top layer. I would use the RC car paint here, but the stuff I bought is supposed to be very hard and scratch resistant.

Holes drilled in the galvanized steel (I ended up finding another 1" spade bit laying around that drilled the holes fine, but I had to enlarge the holes by 1/8" with a dremel and then deburr them), scratches were also polished-out:

Closeup:

Top primered:

Closeup (the holes are a bit messy, but they won't show anyways):

What's next?

Tomorrow I plan on buying a slot-cutter bit and routing the channel for the tmolding. I will probably also primer the rest of the control panel and wet-sand and paint the steel top. I'm not sure how smooth I will be able to get the top for the paint (high gloss), and am a bit afraid how it will turn out. If it doesn't turn-out, I may have to find a creative solution to hide the roughness (with a subtle painted design?).

More Thinking:

To hold the cp box together, I plan on screwing 1"x1" into each inside edge of the box. To hold the top in place, I plan on using a piano hinge on the back and blocks inside the panel with velcro (as saint did). I would also like to cleanly mount the video-out, sound connectors, power connector, and power switch (et cetera) onto the back panel, and figured I could cut a piece of galvanized (painted and with the edges folded-in) to make this panel. Being that there will be a computer in there, I should probably also mount at least one fan (or two?) on the back as well. Will the psu fan be enough, or should I mount another?

Kajoq: that must be about the right size then! Nice cab! Why the pinky button in addition to the thumb button?

chrisindfw: The design and layout were both made in PTC Pro/Desktop (same design). It's a free, slightly watered-down form of Pro/Engineer; I don't think you can just download it from their site though. I think you can only "legally" get it for free if you are a student or belong to a not-for-profit.ginsuvictim: Thanks for the link; I wish the link to the full-size design was still up, as I have suffered a few hard drive crashes since.

Today's news:

Went to several places, none of which carried the router bit. Tomorrow I will try Northern Tool and maybe Harbor Freight. Are these things typically that hard to find? I also was thinking about painting the steel top, but noticed that the primer is slightly rough, and the top layer is like a fine "powder." This brushes off, and the top should sand smooth, but is this "powder" a sign that the primer didn't stick that well? Or should I not be concerned?

Now here's where I did something interesting. I was having to wet-sand a bit more than I thought I should between each layer, and attributed this to the fact that the paint wasn't being applied even enough (some areas were quite shiny, yet others were dull and rough). I figured that maybe if the cp top was vibrating while I painted it, the newly applied paint would "shake" to an even surface. So I made a "table" consisting of a downward facing box-fan (which vibrates quite nicely) and 2x4s on opposite edges of the top and bottom of the fan to allow airflow. I put a scrap piece of metal on top of this, and placed the cp top atop that. While I painted, I turned on the box-fan, which caused the "table" to vibrate the cp slightly as it was painted. As crazy as this all sounds, it seems to have worked!

After wet-sanding and about 6 more coats of paint:

Finally found the router bit. If anyone from Atlanta needs to find one, I found it and an arbor (w/ bearing) for about 20 bucks at Highland Hardware (near Emory U). Edges routered (ignore the permanent marker):

Heres the paint (I think I saw it reccomended on another thread); it's Plasti-Kote Industrial High Gloss Enamel, and I got it for $1.99 a can at Northern Tool (I've already gone through 2 on the cp top). The primer I used was made by the same brand.

I ordered all my parts last night from GGG and Lizard Lick. I ended up with a little more money to spend on this than I thought I would be able to, so there will be a few surprises. I may start painting the rest of the cp tonight, though I might just wait and buy some foam rollers and small cans of paint instead of using spray paint. I just haven't decided yet.

I really like your control panel design. I'm going to use it for my first arcade project. I've reproduced the button and joystick layout in Adobe Illustrator and am in the process of designing an artwork for it. Let me know if you're interested in the .AI file and I'll send it your way. My site (http://www.beezorz.com) has a picture of the design in progress.

Thanks Beezorz! I am flattered. Good job on the design so far! I'd love a copy of the .AI file.

So here's what I've been up to for the past few days...

CP box screwed together and puttied (but not yet sanded):Why did I putty the inside? Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure. I guess I just had nothing better to do at the time.

CP box right after it was primered (and sanded): The primer looks much more evenly spread now that it has dried (not shown).

What's this? A box from GGG?!?! (arrived yesterday)

Surprise item #1:

A hint at surprise items #2-26:

Here's where I faced a problem... I wasn't entirely sure how to center the joystick bottoms over their holes (especially considering that they needed to be facing the right direction). So I used a small carpenter's square to lay-down pieces of tape perpendicular to the cp sides and back along the edges of the button holes, and then aligned the joystick bottoms to the tape by eye (making sure to check from the other side afterwards). The holes were then drilled, and the GGG joystick anchors were screwed-into the panel:

Some of the remaining steel sheet made into A/V-out and power-socket mounting panels for the back of the cp (the blank one is for the power-port; still need to go buy one).

A/V connections harvested from an old cable box, test-fitted in the A/V mounting panel:They fit!

What else was taken from the cable boxes? See those nice air-vent holes? Wouldn't they make wonderful fan grilles for the back of the cp?

Sure they would! Don't worry, I haven't painted them yet.

I'm still working on the custom MaLa layouts; but I may post some screenshots a little later. Enjoy!

So... I made a little change to my plans; the outputs will now be recessed on the back panel (the fan grilles will be placed on both sides):

Felt placed on the bottom of the dust-washers (idea borrowed from another thread):

Surprise Items 2+:

The bulk of the audio/video wiring:

A little messy, but it works:

From the computer (s-video and headphone):

To the back panel (s-video, composite video and sound, headphone jack, toggle-switch for s-video or composite):

I also finished the power connector plate, but the photo didn't turn out. I took the 3-prong power connector from an old AT PSU (same as the ATX connector), and made an extension-cord from a spare power-cable. That connector, along with a momentary pushbutton and a toggle switch will be placed on that plate. The pushbutton will turn on/off the computer, and the toggle switch will prevent accidental turn-offs.

As you may have already noticed, I am making all of the cables (connecting the computer to the outputs) so that parts may be swapped out later (if needed).

Sorry no shots in a while; I've been dealing with software issues for the last few days. Here's a few screenshots of my MaLa layout to hold everyone over. The layout is mostly finished, but I haven't gotten console snaps to display or added PC games yet.

Twin-X: Steal away! In fact, I may have the psd's for you to take a look at if you would like (in 640 x 480 though).

I apologize for the lack of posts in a while; as everyone here probably knows, once the thing is playable, it must be "tested" for a few hours/days. So here we go.

Buttons in-place with LEDs standing erect (A 3/16" hole was drilled into the bottom of each button for a press-fit).

LEDs wired in parallel, each with the resistors that were provided (these are from GGG).

I didn't want to take any chances with blowing-out the LEDs, so I threw-in a 5v voltage regulator I had laying around, along with a switch (in case the lights must be turned-off). This is wired to a molex connector connected to the PSU (this is to the 5v line of the molex; the 12v line powers one of the fans).

Microswitches wired; the tilt pinball buttons were later removed and replaced with hole covers, as they were in the way of buttons on the top and it refused to fully close. *Reminder: measure twice, cut once!*

Interfaced with a GP-Wiz Eco40:

T-molding!

Inside:

Back panels (from the inside):

Micro-ATX Mobo:

Flex-ATX PSU (the ATX PSU I had was a bit too tall, even de-caged; nabbed for $19 shipped on ebay)

Thanks all for the compliments. It's great to have this thing finally complete and playable.

thatitalian: The inserts are from GGG, and they have been great so far. They are very visible with both with the LEDs on or off, and are easy to install. Unfortunately, they do have the tendency to turn a little bit every time they are pressed, so that they become crooked after a few days. And you are correct, they are happ buttons, which I ordered through lizardlick, though many others also sell them (ponyboy is the vendor I hear about the most).

deepblue: It plays wonderfully. I still have a few software issues to deal with (removing or fixing games that don't work; removing bad screenshots that crash Mala, etc.), but they should be easily fixable. Despite the modest specs, most everything launches fast (except for vpinball tables, but they still take less than a minute). It starts up in less than a minute (I think I've lowered this as much as I can), and shuts down in 4 secs. The picture, through composite, was surprisingly better than I thought it would be for a hack. And the control setup works well with all the emulators I have on there (in case anyone was wondering); for example, most n64 games don't need L and R triggers, so there are just enough buttons to play them. Also, I was a bit worried as to whether the thing would run cool enough, given how tightly packed some of the parts are, but it runs much cooler than I thought it would (a solid 34 C).

I got all the software kinks out, and at the request of those who have thusfar played on it, I will be adding Atari 2600, 5200, and 7800 games as well. Because of this, I will be adding a few more Mala layouts to my set, which I will upload very soon for all to enjoy. A "PC Games" layout has also been added, and the "Future Pinball" layout has been changed to instead read "Pinball." Shall I add any others layouts to the mix?

-The PSDs and XCFs for the boot screen, MaLa main tree menu, and the layout backgrounds,-Default snaps for all the included emulators,-PNGs of all that is contained in the PSDs and XCFs-A matching wallpaper, a bootscreen, and an "invisible cursor" so that the cursor is not seen when things are loaded (it is really a small black dot, so it can be seen if necessary)